By Legal Futures’ Associates Advanced
Covid-19 is making life challenging for everyone at the moment, including law firms. It’s therefore encouraging to have a bit of positive news to share. This is, that as part of the third phase of its Economic Resilience Fund (ERF), the Welsh Government is making an additional £140 million available to help Welsh businesses deal with the fallout of the pandemic and the UK’s impending exit from the EU.
Under this new phase of the ERF, £60 million is earmarked to support businesses impacted by local lockdown restrictions, while £80 million of funding will be made available to support businesses with projects that can help them “transition to the economy of tomorrow.”
As Ken Skates, the Economy Minister puts it, the money is to help “secure jobs and enable businesses to continue to develop and grow in these challenging times.” It means that grants are available to Welsh law firms to help them protect and develop their business, and this includes investing in technology that will support the firm’s future success.
Investing in legal tech
With that in mind, several Welsh law firms have already approached us wishing to use this grant to invest in legal technology. In particular, they’ve identified our practice and case management software. This provides end-to-end management of law firms from case and document management to accounting, billing, business intelligence and time recording.
Specifically – and given that even after the firebreak is over, home working is still likely to be advised – it’s really relevant that the Advanced practice and case management system enables seamless and secure 24/7 access to the firm’s files. People can therefore continue to work remotely, using any device, keeping the firm compliant and continuing to service clients efficiently.
The small print
Any size of firm is eligible to apply for ERF funding. Micro-businesses (employing between 1 and 9 people) will be able to apply for up to £10,000 on condition they match this with their own investment of at least 10%.
SMEs (employing between 10 and 249 people) will be able to apply for up to £150,000 on condition they match this with their own investment of at least 10% for businesses up to 49 staff, and 20% for those with between 50 and 249 staff. More detail can be found on the Welsh Government website here.
In this tough climate, we want to help firms transition to a remote working capability via Cloud technology, as it’s clearly becoming a key tool for securing business survival and accelerating success. So if you’re interested in learning more about the digital technologies we can use to transform your firm, please get in touch.
If you’re just beginning to look for a practice and case management system, please join our free webinar on 12th November to hear from Jamie Lockwood of Morrish Solicitors on what was important to his firm when looking for new legal technology. Register here.
